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*** Somewhat uncontroversial, as he was a candidate in the election in question (and not surprisingly, won).
* Scipio Africanus. While he never actually had absolute power, it is arguable that he could have - he was a four-star badass who actually defeated Hannibal, thus gaining more prestige then any Roman had ever had. Instead of attempting to take power, he retired to his villa to get away from the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]] of the Senate.
* Another historical example is [[George Washington]], who was unanimously elected to two terms as U.S. president. When there was no law or even a custom about serving only that many, he declined to run for election again (in fact, he started the custom, which in spite of attempts at third terms by some presidents, wasn't actually broken until [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]). He could have served even longer, but is considered a modern Cincinnatus for not doing so. Cincinnati is partly named in his honor also. Washington pulled this off once prior when he resigned his commission in the army and went back to private life for ''years'' before becoming president. On hearing that Washington planned to invoke this trope, King George III said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
** Polk was before the two-term limit was imposed, but he didn't run for a second term, saying that there was no need as he'd already accomplished everything he wanted to in his first term. Rutherford B. Hayes also declined to run for a second term, keeping a promise he'd made shortly after being elected in highly suspicious circumstances (he won by ''one'' electoral vote, with three states' electoral vote allocations being heavily disputed, and had lost the popular vote). Calvin Coolidge also declined to run again in 1928 despite having served for just under six years as President (similarly to Johnson, except that Coolidge had no term limits). All other one-term presidents (besides the ones that died in their first term) ran for a second term and either lost the election or were passed over by their party.
** The city of Cincinnati, Ohio is specifically named after the Order of the Cincinnati, a military veterans' organization of which George Washington was a founding member. Many critics of the organization consider it ironic that despite ostensibly honoring the retirement of officers into private pursuits, the organization itself amassed a great deal of power after the Revolution and became the closest thing the country had to a landed gentry.
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